Etchells Sir Kenneth Preston Trophy at the Royal Yacht Squadron
by Laurence Mead 27 Jun 2018 02:47 PDT
23-24 June 2018
Peter Rogers, Neil Harrison & Ben Cooper win the Etchells Sir Kenneth Preston Trophy © Alex Irwin /
www.sportography.tv
The thing about a big high-pressure system over England during a race weekend (other than the glorious sunshine!) is that there won't be any wind. Well that was partly true during the Royal Yacht Squadron's Sir Kenneth Preston Trophy raced for by the Cowes Etchells fleet over the weekend of June 23rd and 24th, with Sunday being lost because of excessive sunshine and lack of breeze. Saturday however was picture postcard perfect once the sea breeze had locked in after a short delay.
Race one kicked off in 7 to 8 knots and a very competitive fleet
of 22 Etchells. Unusually for this fleet the start was a bit ragged
with not that many boats on the front row when the gun went.
There was a little bit of pin end bias and although the beat
looked reasonably even the top third had a definite benefit to
being left and it was from that corner that the leaders emerged.
Ante Razmilovic (Brian Hammersley and Andrew Mills) took the
gun just ahead of Lawrie Smith (Gonçalo Ribeiro, Richard
Parslow and Pedro Andrade). In third was regular visitor to the
Solent, Hong Kong sailor Marco Pocci with Marty Kaye driving
and Andrew "Dog" Palfrey in the middle.
Race 2 saw a lot of bunching at the pin end with Razmilovic and
Smith the two most leeward boats. In the end Smith couldn't
make the pin with the building tide keeping the boats away from
the line. Razmilovic led from the pin and halfway up the beat
looked to have a good lead. At one point early on he could
have tacked and crossed everybody but he continued left until
he was near the middle of the course. Smith who had been
forced to gybe out onto port at the pin having failed to lay it,
ducked the fleet ending up on the right hand side at the bottom
of the beat; halfway up he chose to come back left. At this point
fortunes diverged. Despite a 70 meter lead as they crossed
behind Razmilovic, his lead was wiped out as a whole group of
boats got to his left in the top third of the leg and proceeded to
send him back to 15th. The change of fortunes was dramatic.
Having delayed his tack onto port just after the start to get to
the middle of the course he was undoubtedly miffed about the
huge gains to the left that he missed. Also doing well on the left
was Nick Stagg (Matt Reid and Ollie Spensley Corfield) as well
as the Peter Rogers,Neil Harrison, Ben Cooper team in Highlife.
These two boats got up to 2nd and third by the end. Having
missed the pin, ducked the fleet, gone right a bit then hard left
Smith and his team worked their way to the front and won by
miles.
By now the breeze was building and the fleet were enjoying a
solid 12 to 14 knots of south-westerly breeze in solid sunshine.
The big difference however was that the flood tide was building
so the beats were getting longer and with the windward mark
quite far right relative to the bramble bank there were some
interesting tidal issues at the top.
Race 3 got underway and the
pin was again very popular, this time taken by Nick Stagg and
he proceeded to lead the race from the left. Up the first beat all
the gains came from the left, David Franks hung out left the
hardest and was visibly sailing over the boats to leeward of him.
Peter Rogers was also coming from that side and Murray
Chappels who had escaped off the start line after a less than
stellar start had plenty of clear air and was also able to get to
the left.
These four led but the action started when they tacked
onto starboard layline for the mark. After a poor tack Chapples
realised he couldn't make the mark and was forced to gybe out
and ended up 18th after weaving his way through the crowd.
Behind him numerous boats ended up head to wind trying to
shoot the mark which led to multiple incidents and the windward
mark receiving a lot of love from fleet. Although Peter Rogers
sailed smoothly away to take the bullet and David Franks
retained his third Nick Stagg drifted back during the race
finishing 8th but the big casualty was Lawrie Smith who could
only post a tenth.
With three races sailed a series was in the bag and the scores
were very up-and-down. Quite a few of the leaders had two
very good races but a bad one, while Peter Rogers led overall
carrying an 8, 3, 1.
On Sunday it was always inevitable that the breeze was going
to be very light in the morning and with the high-pressure in
charge Peter Rogers had the leader's dilemma of trying to
decide whether he really wished for racing or whether he was
quite happy to see it drifted off rather than expose his lead to
another day of racing. In the end nothing proved possible and
when the music stopped and the day was abandoned Peter
Rogers, Neil Harrison and Ben Cooper took the Sir Kenneth
Preston Trophy by a single point from Lawrie Smith who was
another three points in front of Marco Pocci.
Of note also was an excellent performance in ninth overall by
Will Bedford and his team, the leading youth academy team for
the weekend who scored a 6, 9, 14 in a very tough fleet of 22
boats.
Peter Rogers and Highlife now have the satisfaction of seeing
their names on the wonderful Trophy and on the board in the
Platform at the Royal Yacht Squadron joining such past winners
as Razmilovic, Mead, Bedford, Frohlich, Childerley, and Franks.
Overall Results:
Pos | Sail No | Boat Name | Helm & Crew | R1 | R2 | R3 | Pts |
1 | GBR 1441 | Highlife | Peter Rogers / Neil Harrison / Ben Cooper | 8 | 3 | 1 | 12 |
2 | GBR 1434 | Alfie | Lawrie Smith / Gonçalo Ribeiro / Richard Parslow / Pedro Andrade | 2 | 1 | 10 | 13 |
3 | HGK 903 | Les Freaks Sont Chics/Colin | Marco Pocci / Andrew Doggy Palfrey / Martin Henry Kaye | 3 | 6 | 7 | 16 |
4 | GBR 1438 | Swedish Blue (Corinthian) | Ante Razmilovic / Brian Hammersley / Andrew Mills | 1 | 14 | 2 | 17 |
5 | GBR 1417 | China Wight | Nicholas Stagg / Matt Reid / Ollie Spensley Corefield | 9 | 2 | 8 | 19 |
6 | GBR 1432 | Desparate | Rob Tyrwhitt‑Drake / Mark Mansfield / Roger Reynolds | 7 | 4 | 12 | 23 |
7 | GBR 1431 | Strait Dealer 1431 | David Franks / Graham Sunderland / Mark Lees / Hannah | 4 | 17 | 3 | 24 |
8 | GBR 927 | Shamal | William Bedford / Fraser Woodley / Will Birch‑Tomlinson / Ella Bennett | 6 | 8 | 14 | 28 |
9 | GBR 1407 | ICE (Corinthian) | Andrew Cooper / Mike Greville / Jack Daniels | 14 | 12 | 6 | 32 |
10 | GBR 1437 | Exabyte 7 | Shaun Frohlich / David Bedford / Duncan Truswell | 18 | 11 | 4 | 33 |
11 | GBR 1460 | Man's Best Friend | Grant Simmer / Sam Haines / David Heritage | 5 | DSQ | 5 | 33 |
12 | GBR 1266 | Escape (Corinthian) | Matt Hannaby / Ben Palmer / Dicken McLean | 15 | 5 | 13 | 33 |
13 | GBR 1329 | Stampede (Corinthian) | Rob Goddard / Sam Penhaul Smith / Jack Muldon / Diana Kissane | 12 | 10 | 11 | 33 |
14 | AUS 874 | Silver Lining | Murray Chapples / Laurence Mead / Zac Chapples / Wesley Scott | 11 | 7 | 16 | 34 |
15 | GBR 1194 | Mano (Corinthian) | Ellie Cumpsty / Alida Lewis / Emily Au / Annabel Cattermole | 17 | 9 | 17 | 43 |
16 | GBR 1020 | Sumo (Corinthian) | Ted Blowers / James Clemetson / Madeleine Watkins / Patrick Bray | 10 | 16 | 20 | 46 |
17 | GBR 1439 | Bon Vivant | Stephen Line / Quentin Bes‑Green / Titus Treneman | 16 | 15 | 15 | 46 |
18 | GBR 782 | Pulse | Mark Spearman / Oli Greber / Tim Carter | 22 | 18 | 9 | 49 |
19 | GBR 1271 | Ziggy (Corinthian) | Andrew Wishart / Alex Curtis / Catherine Cherry / Andrew Clarke | 13 | 19 | 18 | 50 |
20 | GBR 1005 | Eccentric (Corinthian) | Colin MacDonald / Peter Boyd / Matt Tozer / Sherif Serifi | 20 | 13 | 21 | 54 |
21 | GBR 1014 | Palaver (Corinthian) | Montel Fagan‑Jordan / Camilo Orobio / Rob Gullan / Azat Ulutas | 19 | 21 | 19 | 59 |
22 | GBR 1351 | Chameleon (Corinthian) | Louis Kenna / Bruce Walker / Paul Dalton | 21 | 20 | 22 | 63 |